Our History
Black Cultural Archives grew from a community response to the New Cross Massacre (1981), the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984); underachievement of Black children in British schools, the failings of the Race Relations Act 1976, and the negative impacts of racism against, and a lack of popular recognition of, and representation by people of African and Caribbean descent in the UK.
Our founders, including the iconic Len Garrison, came to the conclusion that what was needed was a space where members of the community, especially young people, could come and find positive representations of themselves in history and culture. This act of self-help expanded into the creation of what our founders called an ‘archive museum’ that evidenced and painted a more comprehensive picture of Black presence in Britain.
Black Cultural Archives is the home of Black British History.
We use our mission to collect, preserve and celebrate the histories of people of African and Caribbean descent in the UK and to inspire and give strength to individuals, communities and society.
Our HQ is 1 Windrush Square in Brixton, London.
At our HQ we run a series of gallery exhibitions, educational programmes and public engagement events. We provide free access to our unique set of archives, museum objects and reference library.
We are one of the leading non-governmental and heritage institutional voices for the Windrush Generation. We are part of the Windrush Action Group and the Windrush National Organising Committee.
BCA’s network includes current collaborations with the Universities of Roehampton, Royal Holloway, University of London, and Kings College.
We are leaders in the heritage sector for our work on workforce diversity, and we are interrogating decolonial archival practices.
Our Mission
1 Windrush Square
We are located at 1, Windrush Square, in the heart of Brixton.
Steeped in history, Windrush Square is is a place of monument: named after the SS Empire Windrush which docked in Tilbury in 1948 carrying her passengers on their pioneering journey from the Caribbean to Britain.
‘1 Windrush Square’ was built in 1824 as two houses, ‘1-3 Effra Road’, with an additional meeting hall built around 1885. The Georgian period (1714 - 1830s) is known for many things including a significant moment when multiculturalism arrived in Britain: an estimated ten to twenty thousand people of African descent lived in 18th century London.
Later known as ‘Raleigh Hall’, the building has served many purposes. In the 1960s the ‘Raleigh Hall Works’ closed and this once splendid building fell into disrepair.
The meeting hall was sold off separately from the rest of building in 1997 to its tenants the Raleigh Furniture Workshops, who still occupy it. BCA was granted the lease of the now derelict remainder of 1-3 Effra Road. We refurbished the building and reopened it as our HQ, with its current address 1, Windrush Square, in 2014.